D&D DICEMASTERS (Collectible Dice Building Game)

Coming in February is a new dice building game with a D&D theme. "Battle for Faerûn brings Dice Masters Collectible Dice Building game to the tabletop with this all-new head-to-head competitive game set in the Dungeons & Dragons Forgotten Realms universe! Battle for Faerûn is the first set in the Dungeons & Dragons Dice Masters Line! Prepare to defeat the opposing warlord with dragons, mind flayers, beholders, kobolds, stirges, and adventurers!"

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The starter set comes with 44 dice, 38 cards, a couple of dicebags, and a rulebook and will set you back $19.99. There's also a free bonus Minsc & Boo promo card with the starter set, though only while stocks last. You can also buy "foil packs" which contain two dice and two cards for $0.99.

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[Stacie GmrGrl]

This is the cheapest collectible game ever produce and it's also one of the more fun ones. Games are quick and it does require a bit of strategic thinking since the actual game play is fairly similar to Magic: the Gathering. Sure it has a collectible element, but it's not an expensive one, and it doesn't take much to get enough for a couple people to play. The booster packs are $1.00, two cards with two dice that match the cards, and once you get a single copy of each card then you're good to go.

Any comparison to Quarriors does this game a disservice IMO... sure Quarriors is alright, but Dice Masters takes the basic concept of Quarriors and improves upon it to the point where Quarriors is a pale comparison at best to how good Dice Masters is.

Knowing which characters to choose for your team, which quantity of dice to put on your characters for you to buy to put in your bag, knowing which dice to reroll during the roll phase and when to attack and when to not attack so you can have defenders... there's a surprising amount of depth to this game that so many of you are not even considering if all you are thinking is that this game is only a 'random dice rolling game.'

IMO there is less randomization in this game than most collectible card games out there, especially Magic. In the many games I've played of Dice Masters I can say I've never been screwed by a bad dice roll. If anything, I've been screwed by making a bad decision that cost me the game.

 

[Stacie GmrGrl]

The great thing about all these different Dice Masters games... Marvel Uncanny X-Men, Marvel Avengers vs. X-Men, Yugioh, D&D, DC Justice League... is that they are all totally interchangeable.

The fact that Wiz-Kids can make a dice game where every single game has unique character dice that are so easily to tell apart at a glance, and have also made the game surprisingly thematic because of how well the character cards have really appropriate powers and abilities is really cool.

 

[Jhaelen]

Quarriors is fun, so I might give this a try (wasn't interested in any of the previous Dice Masters games, although I'd heard good things about them).

 

[Stormonu]

I have Quarriors, really like the game. Have the Marvel Dice Masters, but haven't had a chance to play it. I still have my Dragon Dice, hate the game. This just brings back the horrors of those days when TSR was thrashing about, trying any way it could to stem the arterial puncture it was bleeding from that had been dealt to it by Magic: The Gathering.

I'm pretty damn sure it will be a fad, just like the fortune cards back in 4E.

 

[Stacie GmrGrl]

I have Quarriors, really like the game. Have the Marvel Dice Masters, but haven't had a chance to play it. I still have my Dragon Dice, hate the game. This just brings back the horrors of those days when TSR was thrashing about, trying any way it could to stem the arterial puncture it was bleeding from that had been dealt to it by Magic: The Gathering.

I'm pretty damn sure it will be a fad, just like the fortune cards back in 4E.

You think D&D Dice Masters will be a fad?

First of all this game is not done by WotC at all, its done by Wiz-Kids.
Second of all Dice Masters was one of the biggest new games that came out in 2014. It was so hugely successful and demanded by people, primarily tabletop board gamers, that WK couldn't meet the demand of the game for over half a year. The first Marvel Dice Masters had 3 print runs going before the first was actually released into stores because the demand far exceeded their initial expectations, and it did set the game back quite a bit because of it.
Third, any comparisons to Quarriors is superficial at best. This game sure uses the same basic core idea, but it doesn't play like Quarriors at all. Any comparisons to that old game Dragon Dice truly shows that whomever makes this comparison has no clue what they are talking about. Sorry if that seems a bit blunt to me, but it shows that all some people are doing is taking the D&D brand and associating it with a previously released game decades old and since this new game uses dice than therefore they must be similar and anybody who makes a decision to not pick up D&D Dice Masters because of this comparison to Dragon Dice is making a bad decision based on a faulty comparison to a game that has no relation at all to the new Dice Masters.
Fourthly, this game is no fad. It really is one of the most successful games of 2014 and will continue to grow this year.

Now I do apologize if I did say something here that came off a bit blunt and I mean no offense to anybody. I just think that people should really have all the facts about something before they either say something about it or make a decision about it and I hope I didn't offend anybody. I'm sorry if I came off the wrong way.

 

[Stormonu]

You think D&D Dice Masters will be a fad?

First of all this game is not done by WotC at all, its done by Wiz-Kids.

Yes, I do believe it will be a fad, because it is done by Wizkids. They have left a legacy of games they have abandoned for the new hotness. I don't see this surviving even as long as the Marvel version. I give it maybe a year.

 

[Dire Bare]

And let the thread-crapping without any real knowledge of the game commence! A grand tradition!

I don't think this is something interesting. I think this is unnecessary.

"Unnecessary?" Like anything we talk about in these forums is "necessary". It's a game. Some will find it fun, others won't. Criticizing it as "unnecessary" is strange and odd to say the least. Do you "need" this to enjoy your D&D rpg? No, but you might enjoy it anyway. Or not, who cares?

Agreed. Stuff like this makes me think that the RPG is just a loss leader for their other products.

What exactly about a dice game makes you think that? Some D&D fans love having alternate ways to engage in the hobby, like card games, dice games, board games, video games . . . . what's wrong with ANY of that? Did you say the same thing when "Sword Coast Legends" (latest video game) was announced? Should WotC avoid all novels, comics, miniatures games, board games, and cool t-shirts? Should they bother trying to get an awesome movie made? Like "unnecessary" above, this complaint mystifies me.

Why wouldn't WotC want to expand the D&D brand into areas folks might really dig? And licensing most certainly DOES bring in more money (at least potentially, if done well) than the core RPG. Doesn't mean the core RPG isn't a priority for the company, as implied.

Dragon Dice for a new millennium?

Ugh. They're trying to make "Dragon Dice" a thing again? Whats next Spellfire?

Dragon Dice was actually a pretty cool game that was very successful, but for a variety of reasons didn't have legs. And, just like TSR mismanaged the rpg itself, TSR mismanaged their hit collectible dice game, killed it, killed the burgeoning collectible dice game "genre" (at the time), and further weakened the company towards collapse. But the game itself was fun.

IMO, the biggest problem with Dragon Dice was that if you got into it, your collection soon became unwieldy as dozens or even hundreds of polyhedral dice are a bugger to store and organize.

I never played Spellfire, was turned off by the poor artwork used (if you're going to recycle art for your card game, at least use the good stuff!). The game has a bad rep online, but lasted five years, four editions, and 12 expansions . . . somebody was playing it and having fun!

I think, lacking any real information about the new game, a questioning comparison to Dragon Dice is fair enough, both are D&D themed collectible dice games. But automatically assuming that, a) Dragon Dice = bad, therefore b) new game I know nothing about must also be bad, is just being lazy.

 

[Dire Bare]

I've tried the x-men version, it was OK but I found the tiny dice annoying & fiddly.

I purchased starter packs for the two Marvel sets and the D&D set plus some boosters. So far, I am really enjoying the game.

But I have a fear related to your issue. I don't find the dice annoying or fiddly, but I am worried about my dice collection becoming unwieldy. Cards are pretty easy to store and amass a decent sized collection, but dice require a whole new level of storage and organization. I ran into this when I played Dragon Dice back in the day, but at least Dice Masters are all d6's, so stack nicely together . . .

 

[Dire Bare]

It's cool that they're getting their licensed products rolling out

That said, this one isn't for me, based on the X-Men version. I like card games and I like dice game. I even like deck-building games where other game pieces are used so you don't have to shuffle all the time.

I'm just spoiled by card games where the rules are on the card. I don't want to be consulting a reference card constantly (especially if they keep having multiple cards for the same die type). The double-randomness of what you draw and what you roll is also a major turn-off.

I got confused by your "reference card" complaint, and I'm still not sure I get you. There is no "reference card" for the game, although playing without a copy of the "game mat" can get confusing. Or are you referring to the game cards themselves? I tend to think of the game as a "card and dice game" rather than as a "dice game", as you do need the game cards to play. But I see them just like Magic cards but with the "extension" of the dice element. Not much different from "card and miniature games" where you need both the card and the mini to play.

And, unless I'm missing something, there is no "double" randomness. While you do draw dice randomly from your "bag", you don't draw cards during the game. You simply lay out your character and action cards, which basically set your dice pool that you can purchase from.

 

[Dire Bare]

All the dice are D6s?

...Well, good luck with that.

The game certainly would have felt more D&D if it used different polyhedrals, but the game doesn't suffer for the lack of it. That was one of my first thoughts too, though.

Have you played "Sword Coast Adventures", which is a browser side-game to the Neverwinter MMO? Each of your characters has growing access to various and unique polyhedral dice to face the challenges of the game, it's a neat little side-game for the main MMO and the dice-mechanic (virtual as it is) is clever and fun. When I first heard there would be a new D&D dice game, this is what I thought of!

But Dice Masters, despite the lack of weird polyhedral dice, is a fun, quick game. And totally mixable with the Marvel, DC, and Yugioh sets as well, as an option. WizKids does a lot of licensing, so we might also get Dice Master sets for other "universes" down the road, which could add to the fun!